Life is hard. It can lead many to question their existence, even suicide. Of course, the idea that your life is being controlled by somebody is a scary thought. “Negative Space†by Owen Gieni with art by Ryan K Lindsay is one of those stories, but sadly it also goes down an all too familiar path.
Guy is a writer who no only is having a major case of writer’s block, he’s also considering suicide. One day while on a walk to clear his head he finds out that there is more to his existence than he thought.
The first few pages of this comic make you believe this is going to be a serious existential story, then it morphs into “The Truman Show.†Everything about Guy’s life is planned out for him by a command center, even all the bad things that happen to him.
This type of storytelling is troubling in that it can lead to this being another “Matrix†clone. In fact, the end of the comic shows signs that it is morphing into one. Gieni may be going down a hole he may not be able to get out of if he continues to go down this and not come up with something truly original to avoid it.
Lindsay’s art starts off beautiful and then declines as the story progresses. Just like the story, the art starts in one direction and then goes in a completely different direction. That doesn’t mean it gets worse, rather it’s more like the art realizing it’s in a different story and quickly changes its overall feel. Even the character designs falter. They start off creative and then morph into generic comic book bad people.
“Negative Space†is a confused comic that is slowly imploding on itself. The plot has been done before and can possibly make this comic much worse than it already it. It had a neat idea at first, but a “Truman Show†plot will only put off many readers.
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